The personal blog of Pastor Matt Powell of Casper WY

No Nationalities in the Eternal Kingdom

The Lamb, according to Revelation 19:15, will destroy the nations. He strikes them down with the sword and rules over them with a rod of iron. The “rod of iron” quote is from Psalm 2, and there, the consequences of being ruled with a rod of iron is being smashed into pieces like a piece of crockery. The people of God are redeemed out of every tribe and nation. That “out of” is important. All ethnicities are represented, but their ethnicities are no longer their primary identity. They are part of the one family of God now, the one human race.

This should inform us as we consider our loyalties to ethnicities and nations in the present age. Taking care of one’s family is important, and this can extend to the broader family as well without damage to Biblical principle. We can also look at how God has blessed particular groups over the years, especially through their training in Christianity, that has had such profound effects on the history of Europe, for example. But we must always recognize that these benefits come from God and from Christianity, and never from the racial / ethnic identity per se.

I believe racism is making a comeback, and I think it’s a direct consequence of the racially inflammatory propaganda of the progressive movement, especially of the current president and his administration. Rush Limbaugh called it just right; he said electing Obama would make race relations much worse, not better, and they certainly have.

It is no accident that those pushing race conflict are also statists; by breaking down all other allegiances and sources of identity, they can bind everyone to the state. Further, by stirring up conflict they have a handy club to beat any opponent with. Statists always push conflict with others, because they always thrive in environments where people are angry and fearful. But the more they beat people with the club of racism, the less effect that club has. The sad (and I fear intended) result is actually to drive more whites into their whiteness as a source of identity, for that just increases the conflict. People are just not going to believe that they are evil monsters because they are white; their response instead will be to say, what’s so bad about being white? Some are going to believe the arguments that white people are uniquely horrible, and blame their own identity for the ills of the world, but a lot more just won’t. Kinism, white nationalism, aspects of neoreaction- I’ve seen a real rise in discussion of these ideas, though it’s difficult to discern how much internet discussions represent the broader population. But knowing people, and knowing the sad history of the human race gives me concern that these represents wide trends in the population.

The response of Christian people must be to not take this bait, to not fall into the trap of the statists, to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in whiteness our American-ness, or western European-ness (if that happens to be our identity). It is absolutely true that the peoples of western Europe and America have been greatly blessed by our long training in Christianity. But this fact should amplify our identity as Christians, not as white people. We will see what happens to these peoples as they reject Christianity, and what happens to other peoples and nations as they embrace it all the more, as is happening in Africa and Asia, for example. There are no nations in the eternal kingdom. There is one people, called out of the nations, which at the coming of Christ are destroyed by His wrath.